


Birthday Cake

by windwhisper



Series: trustedpartnershipping content [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: I Will Go Down With This Ship, Not Canon Compliant, i didn't even edit it, i kind of forgot about the pokemon for a bit, i'm just that desperate to provide content to this wasteland, in my defense i speed wrote this in like two hours, possibly kind of ooc as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-05 19:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15869781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windwhisper/pseuds/windwhisper
Summary: Ash calls Gladion early one morning to ask for help: he wants to surprise Lillie with a cake for her birthday, and it all starts to go downhill from there.





	Birthday Cake

**Author's Note:**

> I just hope someone enjoys this, honestly. This is a good ship and it deserves more love! All the love! And all the content! But there's not a lot of either of those things, unfortunately. However, that's just how it works: if you can't find them, you create them.

For the first time in his life, Gladion is woken by his ringtone instead of his alarm. He glances out the window, wondering if he’s overslept, but no - the sun isn’t even out yet. Which means, in his personal opinion, it’s _way too early_ to be awake.  
  
“Hello?” he asks, answering the call solely because the phone _won’t stop ringing_ and not bothering to mask his irritation. “Who is this?”  
  
“Gladion!” Ash’s voice on the other side exclaims. “I’m glad you’re awake, I need your help!”  
  
The blonde needs a minute to process this. Ash is calling him, on his cell phone (where did he _get_ this number?), and asking for his help. Whatever it is must be important. Well, now he just feels like a jerk for how he answered the phone, honestly. “What do you need?” It’s probably important, if he went to the trouble of tracking down Gladion’s phone.  
  
“Well, Lillie’s birthday is tomorrow, and I wanted to make her a cake to celebrate,” Ash explains, and Gladion nods before he remembers that he’s on the phone. “But then I remembered… I have no idea how to make a cake.”  
  
Wait. Is he actually serious right now? “You realize it’s, still, you know… _Dark_ outside?”  
  
“Oh… Are you busy?” Ash asks, and Gladion can actually hear the disappointment in his voice. “Sorry.”  
  
“What? No, I’m not! I was _sleeping_ ! Just, why couldn’t you have called… I don’t know, three or four hours from now? And where did you even get my number?”  
  
“I just called as soon as I woke up,” Ash admits, having the decency to at least sound apologetic. “I haven’t even eaten yet! And, uh, you _gave_ it to me last time I saw you. Anyway, how fast can you get here?”  
  
Gladion thinks about that for a moment. “I’ll be there in an hour at the latest,” he says finally. “Try not to burn down the kitchen while I’m on my way over.”  
  
(He barely catches Ash’s indignant shout of ‘That was _one time_ !’ and makes a note to ask about it later.)  
  
The way to Professor Kukui’s home is filled with exactly one thought: when did he give Ash his phone number? He doesn’t remember that at all, and it feels like the kind of important event you’re _supposed_ to remember, like giving a cute bo-- a _friend_ . He’s pretty sure most people don’t give out their numbers and forget about it. Once he reaches the front door, however, he tells himself to stop thinking about it (as if that’s ever worked), and knocks. As expected, Ash answers the door, still in his pajamas-- and Gladion realizes he’s never actually seen Ash’s pajamas before. They’re cute, a green shirt with a design he doesn’t recognize and blue shorts, and _he should probably stop staring now_ \--  
  
What Gladion fails to notice is that Ash is staring at him in much the same way. “You always look so cool,” he says with a hint of admiration. “Even when it’s early!”  
  
When those words actually register in his mind, Gladion short-circuits for a moment. “I… _Huh_ ?”  
  
“Like, your hair! It’s always like that! And you’re always wearing that hoodie!” Ash continues, seemingly unaware of the fact that Gladion’s ability to process anything leaving his cru-- _friend’s_ mouth has decided to take a vacation.  
  
There are several consecutive moments of silence while Gladion waits for the world to start making sense again. Then, suddenly, he’s thinking a thousand things at once: ‘ _You can’t just_ say _that!_ ’ is probably the loudest one, followed by ‘ _I’m going to wake up any minute now_ ’ and ‘ _Wow, he looks incredibly attractive right now_ ’-- and that’s it, thoughts are cancelled until further notice. He blocks them out, realizing that he’s been staring again-- and that Ash is staring _back_ and oh, he probably looks like the socially awkward gay disaster that he is right now, isn’t that just great. Eventually, he manages to remember what he’s supposed to be here for: “So, uh. Cake?”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“...Lillie’s birthday cake?” he manages after a minute.  
  
“Oh, that’s right! Uh, come inside!” Ash adds, stepping aside to actually let him in. “I’d offer you breakfast, but… I’m actually not allowed to cook, so… Professor Burnet’s been trying to teach me, though!”  
  
“Is that the only reason you called?” Gladion asks, feigning hurt. “To have someone to operate the oven for you?” Ash actually blushes at that, and there’s a part of Gladion’s mind that shouts ‘ _Score!_ ’, but _thoughts are cancelled_ , so instead he just rolls his eyes.  
  
“Of course not!” Ash protests, still blushing slightly. “I, uh… Also needed to know what kind of cake to make.”  
  
“Wait, why would I know that?”  
  
“I don’t know! Lillie’s _your_ sister!” Ash points out.  
  
Gladion supposes that his logic is sound, if a little flawed. There was a time when he would have known her favorite cake, sure, but that was a long time ago now. He’s pretty sure Ash knows her better now, and that makes him feel a little guilty (okay, more than a little). “I haven’t lived with her in years,” he says eventually. “All things considered, you would probably be able to make a better guess. What do _you_ think she’d like?”  
  
Ash has to think about that, but not for very long. “Well, she loves Snowball,” he offers. “We could make a cake shaped like Snowball!”  
  
That’s a fantastic idea, actually. There’s just one problem: it would be an incredibly difficult cake to make. It’s the excitement evident on Ash’s face that wins him over-- well, that and that Lillie definitely deserves it, especially since he’s been so absent for so long. “That sounds perfect,” he agrees, feeling both pleased with himself and a little bit like he’s just ordered his own execution. “Let’s get started.”  
It takes Gladion all of ten minutes to get out everything they need and organize it, as well as fetching a recipe. While he’s at it, he starts the oven preheating, along with a stern statement. “ _Do not_ , under _any circumstances_ , touch that oven. Understood?”  
  
“Okay,” Ash agrees. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to Lillie’s cake, after all!”  
  
“Or the Professors’ kitchen,” Gladion adds, sliding the butter and the cake pan towards Ash. “Butter the cake pan, it’ll make it all go faster.”  
  
While Ash works on that, Gladion gets to work on mixing the other ingredients, fuelling the whisking process with his irritation at his inability to think straight. Stupid, distracting-- _no_ . It’s not Ash’s fault that Gladion is distracted, it’s his own fault for being hopelessly in-- _no_ , those thoughts are _not allowed_ . He isn’t hopelessly _in_ anything. He’s just hopeless, period. Well, right now, he’s done whisking, and notices that Ash is done buttering the pan and has put it aside. He gently pushes the bowl towards him, figuring that mixing stuff and breaking eggs is fun. “Alright, I’ll be right back. While I’m gone, I need you to put four eggs in this bowl, and then I need you to mix them in.”  
  
Ash nods, and Gladion takes that as his cue to go stand outside for a few minutes as the sun rises ( _finally_ ) and actually process his thoughts instead of ignoring them for once in his life, because ignoring them isn’t going to work if they simply come back every time he so much as glances in Ash’s general direction. First fact: he has feelings regarding Ash. Second thought: these feelings are positive (overwhelmingly so). Third thought: he’s hopelessly in lo-- _like_ . Hopelessly in _like_ . _Love_ is a bit of a strong word, but _like_ is versatile.  
  
So, Gladion is hopelessly in _like_ with Ash. He’s acknowledged it. And now that he has, he’s realizing that simply admitting those feelings to himself isn’t going to help at all when it comes to _dealing_ with them. Sure, he’s admitted _why_ he keeps staring at Ash. It’s not like that’s going to make him stop wanting to in the first place, and he’s not exactly great at resisting temptation. ...Speaking of resisting temptation, maybe leaving Ash alone in the kitchen was a bad idea. He should probably go make sure everything is still there, because if Ash burns down the kitchen right now it will be at least partly Gladion’s fault.  
  
“Ash, is everything oka-- _Where are all the eggs_ ?” he demands, entering the kitchen to see an empty egg carton.  
  
Ash shrugs innocently, despite the _incredibly obvious_ yolk stains on his clothes. “Maybe they _cracked under pressure_ ?”  
  
Gladion stares at him for a moment, before turning away. “No. I’m not even going to _acknowledge_ that. It was absolutely awful and you have been spending way too much time with Professor Kukui.”  
  
When he turns around again, Ash is still grinning like he just won the lottery. “Well, I guess my latest _yolk_ wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.”  
  
“I’m starting to regret every one of my life choices that led me to be in this room,” Gladion replies flatly (thankfully, it’s a lot easier to think clearly around Ash when he’s making terrible puns, so suffering through them has _one_ benefit). “Are there at least four in the bowl?”  
  
Ash shrugs again. “Probably? I lost count around the fifth one breaking...”  
  
“Close enough, I guess. Also, you’re banned from ever touching the mixing bowl again,” he declares as he starts mixing in the few things that are still missing. Unfortunately, his general frustration means he mixes faster than he actually needs to, and suddenly there’s cake batter all over his face. He barely notices it, continuing to mix the bowl as its contents splash onto his hoodie, until Ash starts laughing.  
  
“You look _ridiculous_ ,” Ash laughs, and he retaliates in the most tactful way he can think of: splashing Ash with the batter as well.  
  
“And now so do you,” he says proudly, not paying attention as Ash snatches the bowl and the situation escalates into a cake war. It’s a short but brutal struggle (Gladion even removes his hoodie, not wanting any further damages to it), ending with the bowl empty and both boys covered head to toe in its contents (he hadn’t even realized the bowl was so big until its contents proved enough to coat them both). The final move is an impressive one: Ash has the bowl, almost empty now, and as he aims it at Gladion’s discarded hoodie, Gladion tackles him in a last-ditch effort. It’s a narrow success as he snatches it at the very last second-- and, as he dumps the last of the batter on Ash’s face, whispers, “I win.”  
  
They’re so caught up in their game (and staring into each other’s eyes) that they fail to notice the footsteps on the stairs. “Good morning, Ash. Oh, and good morning, Gladion-- What are you two doing on the floor? Actually, never mind, I don’t care. Just clean up the mess you’ve made of the kitchen,” Professor Burnet orders, and Gladion immediately rolls off of Ash and leaps to his feet, as Ash does the same.  
  
“No problem!” Ash nods excitedly. “It’ll be fun!”  
  
Gladion is about to comment on his undying optimism when he realizes something a little more important. “...What about the cake? We just used all the batter.”  
  
“Oh, I know! We’ll just ask Mallow, she can probably make one!”  
  
This is a remarkably simple solution, and it makes Gladion wonder why Ash even called him in the first place, if another of Lillie’s friends was capable of making the cake. He’ll ask later. Right now, though, they have a kitchen to clean.  
  
“You look really nice without it,” Ash comments as he leans over to pick up his hoodie and put it back on. “Not that you don’t look good with it on, too! They’re both great!”  
  
(Gladion suddenly finds himself glad that the batter on his face is hiding the blush behind it.)  
  
The cleaning moves quickly after that, though by the time they leave they’re both still covered in batter and Ash is still in his pajamas. Still, he’s more than happy to lead the way to Mallow’s family’s restaurant, and Mallow is, thankfully, the only one present.  
  
“What _happened_ to you two?” she asks, and Ash explains about the cake for Lillie and what they had originally wanted to do and how it had escalated into a cake-fight. Thankfully, she can help. “A cake that looks like Snowball? That’s a wonderful idea, Ash!” she claps her hands together. “While I do that, why don’t you two go wash off?”  
  
Gladion hesitates for a moment - he wants to make sure Lillie’s cake is _perfect_ , even if he’s still not entirely sure what her perfect cake really _is_ \-- but Ash takes his hand and drags him out the door towards the water. Once they get there, he takes his hoodie off again and reaches to push Ash into the water, but misses and ends up falling in himself. Ash jumps in after him, though, so he supposes it’s a victory by association.  
  
It takes a while to get most of the batter off, and there’s still patches of it stuck to their clothes, but at least their hair and faces are finally clean. He drags himself back to the shore, sitting at the side of the water and watching Ash, who had gone further out, swim back. He opens his mouth to say something - a compliment, maybe, or teasing - but nothing comes out. He’s completely speechless. That’s probably a normal thing to think when you see your crush swimming towards you without a shirt on.  
  
(He had actually kept his on. He felt naked enough without the hoodie.)  
  
Ash laughs as he joins him on the shore. “I’ve never seen you with your hair soaked before!”  
  
Gladion sighs and tries to brush it off of at least half of his face. The thing with his hair is that when it’s wet, he can barely see-- it covers his eyes unless he pushes it aside. “I can’t see _anything_ with my hair soaked,” he complains as it falls directly in front of his eye once again. “And I don’t have my hair gel, so I can’t fix it right now,” he adds under his breath.  
  
“You use gel? I thought it was just naturally shaped like that!” Ash exclaims, and it’s kind of a ridiculous thing to be excited about if you ask him, but that’s exactly why he lo- _likes_ Ash in the first place. He’s excited about pretty much everything. Besides, it’s kind of nice to hear that someone likes his hair, because public opinion seems to be that pretty much everyone else hates it. Then again, Gladion isn’t sure Ash is capable of hating _anything_ .  
  
“No,” he answers eventually when he realizes that Ash is actually waiting for an answer. “It’s something that I have to fix every day. Do you think Mallow’s done Lillie’s cake yet?” he asks as he puts his hoodie on again and pulls it over his face.  
  
“Maybe! Let’s go see,” Ash says brightly, grabbing Gladion’s hand once more. As he's dragged off yet again, he finds himself thinking that he could probably get used to this, eventually.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to actually go sleep now. Maybe.


End file.
